Viewpoint

Items That Were Almost Columns

Members of the Hempstead Town Board are only the latest in a long line of elected officials of both parties who have voted to give themselves a pay raise in the period between Election Day and the start of their new term. You knew what the pay was before you accepted the nomination. This practice should be prohibited in all New York government units. Don’t count on that, since the state Legislature has done this three times since the 1980s. It will have to be banned one municipality at a time.

Two Glens

We don’t apply a single income tax rate to all the residents of an entire ZIP code or school district, so why do we still do it that way with property taxes? One theoretical partial bandage for the broken property tax system would be to apply state school aid on a household-by-household basis, so that middle-income families are not penalized for living in “high wealth” districts.

Public Policy Smackdown

1. For New Yorkers, this year’s federal stimulus mostly was a tax stabilization program, holding off state and local government budget meltdowns. This was a useful, if unromantic, purpose. Unfortunately, it is hard to turn around a national economy when no one really knows what our economy is supposed to look like. Create jobs? There are plenty of new jobs for which Americans can apply; many of them are in Guangdong Province where the salary explosion has jacked up average pay to over $6,000. The 1988 free trade agreement between the U.S. and Canada actually created a boomlet in Western New York, where salaries and other costs were a little lower than those in nearby Toronto. Free trade in the 1990s and 2000s has largely meant free access to cheap, exploited labor. Elsewhere. At this point, the jury is back and those who pushed for the kind of free trade we actually got should probably just take a deep bow and gracefully retire from public life forever…

Patterson’s Promise

“He has the background, education, courage and ability to meet the challenge of this office. And I stand ready to be of assistance and to serve my county in any manner that he may desire.” These are the words of outgoing Nassau County Executive Holly Patterson at the swearing-in of his successor, the Democratic Eugene Nickerson, on New Year’s Day 1962. Patterson, former County Leader (that was his title) of the Nassau Republicans, was true to his word and played a productive role on boards dealing with planning, recreation and education during Nickerson’s administration.

Who is Gary McKinnon?

You probably don’t know who Gary McKinnon is, but to millions of people in Great Britain, he has become a cause celebre that has united elements of the political right, left and center and threatens to seriously damage the image of the United States abroad. It is front-page news in every British newspaper, but has barely made a dent in the compliant American media. But when I tell you who he is, you may say, “Oh, yeah,” because what he did in 2001 and 2002 made a splash in our news and in the monologues of late night comedians.

Perspective

Before we follow the advice of some politicians and pundits and launch a war on our public schools and the people who work in them, let’s pause to consider the reality on the ground.

A Bunch of Numbers

2216: The section of the Nassau County Charter law that allows for the appointment of an emergency interim successor in case of a vacancy in the office of County Executive. However, it only applies in the case of a devastating attack upon the United States that threatens the continuity of local government. This section was adopted in 1963. Nassau County may have the only county charter in America that actually mentions “the inevitable hazards of radioactive contamination.”…

Waiting for the Recount Notes

1. State leaders are talking about across-the-board spending cuts to close growing budget deficits. The across-the-board approach may seem to be the quickest, fairest way at first glance, but in the long run it can cost the most, because all measures of effectiveness and usefulness are removed from the equation. Particularly when dealing with state agencies, Long Island not-for-profit organizations that receive funding to provide needed support services must file detailed outcome reports. Then along comes a budget crunch and across-the-board reductions hurt and even jeopardize programs that do great jobs along with any that don’t.…

Clearing the Air

1. As of the moment this is being written, Legislator Ed Mangano leads County Executive Suozzi by 497 votes on voting machines. The counting of over 8,000 absentee and other paper ballots might be completed by the time you read this. Most political people believe Mr. Mangano is the favorite to win because more enrolled Republicans returned absentee ballots than enrolled Democrats. However, some of those Republicans are actually older “hidden” Democrats, vestiges from a time when it was smarter and safer to enroll with the G.O.P. just in case you had to do business with the county or town. Are there enough of them to make up that kind of ground? Twenty years ago, the answer was definitely, “maybe yes.” Today, it’s not as clear. Insiders say that the Mangano campaign worked the absentee ballots much more than the Suozzi campaign, meaning they made direct contact with applicants. If so, it’s another sign that the Democratic Party is losing institutional knowledge of even the basic mechanics of campaign making. It isn’t all about collecting large campaign checks.…

The Vote

It will take focus groups and other research tools to really figure out the reasons voters cast their ballots one way or another. Already, the morning after the county election, with the outcomes of two countywide races and a legislative race on hold possibly for weeks, we are subjected to some very tortured and self-serving explanations, particularly from some disappointed Democrats.

Face the ugly facts. In many parts of Nassau County, four out of five Democrats did not feel that the act of voting was worth their time. Younger, independent voters have turned away from our local politics. The voters most likely to support countywide Democrats were uninspired and unengaged and went on with their lives. Overall, more than seven out of 10 Nassau County voters didn’t want to play this game.